PSNI told to complete probe into Glenanne Gang
WITNESSES and those bereaved by a loyalist terror unit behind more than 100 murders are dying without achieving any closure on suspected State collusion, a High Court judge has said.
As Mr Justice Treacy confirmed he will make an order compelling Chief Constable George Hamilton to complete an overarching investigation into the Glenanne Gang’s killing spree throughout the 1970s, he set out the wider impact of legal complexities in the case.
He said: “The very sad inescapable fact is that while these debates rage on at huge public expense the victims’ families languish with no end in sight and the ever-increasing realisation that nothing much may happen in their lifetime.”
Earlier this year Mr Justice Treacy ruled that police unlawfully frustrated any chance of an effective probe of the atrocities.
Relatives were denied in their legitimate expectation that the now-defunct Historical Enquiries Team would publish a thematic report, the judge held.
The verdict was reached in a legal challenge brought in the name of Edward Barnard. Mr Barnard’s 13-year-old brother Patrick was among four people killed in a St Patrick’s Day bomb attack on the Hillcrest Bar in Dungannon in March 1976.
Five years later Dungannon UVF member Garnet James Busby was convicted after admitting his role in the attack.
The murder gang, run out of a farm in Glenanne, Co Armagh, allegedly contained members of the RUC and UDR. Up to 120 murders are under scrutiny.
They include outrages such as the 1975 Miami Showband massacre, where three members of the popular group were shot dead on a country road. Two of the UVF gang, who were members of the UDR, also died when the bomb they were planting in the band’s van went off prematurely. The gang has also been linked to the murder of 33 people in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
A HET report into alleged security force collusion with the killers was said to have been 80% finalised before being shelved.
Mr Barnard and other relatives wanted to have police com- pelled to complete the full investigation and publish the findings.
His barrister said documents in the case revealed Busby named two other suspects who took the bomb to the bar. He argued the development represented fresh evidence in the case.
Counsel for the Chief Constable had insisted it would be an unnecessary step to force police to finalise an overarching report he claimed had yielded no new investigative opportunities.
Following his original ruling Mr Justice Treacy was urged to make an order compelling the Chief Constable to conduct a lawful investigation, and complete and publish an overarching thematic report.
He was told the PSNI will appeal his judgment.
Before drafting the terms of his order the judge requested confirmation that there are no minutes or documents about the adoption of new terms of reference or the decisions of the Chief Constable and an Assistant Chief Constable referred to in the case.
Referring to the collusion allegations, he said: “I have no doubt that for some families their confidence has been undermined by delays which they believe are inimical to addressing their principal unresolved concerns.
“In the meantime witnesses or potential witnesses are lost and family members of the deceased die without any closure or resolution.”